A fire caused by a flaming shipment of gourmet cheese has shut down a northern Norwegian traffic tunnel, a closure that could last for weeks as the damage is repaired.

This tale of dairy woe may sound like an isolated incident, but the truth is in fact a lot weirder: flaming cheese disasters are somewhat common, thanks to the fatty, sometimes sugary nature of everyone's favorite dairy product.

A deadly New Zealand cheese fire began back in 2008 at a Hamilton cool-store facility, when a large quantity of cheese erupted into a massive fat fire, said TV NZ.

Between 70 and 100 firefighters responded to the blaze during a night-long firefight, and neighbors in the area had to be evacuated due to choking smoke. One firefighter was tragically killed in an explosion of flame from the burning building.

But that's not the only destructive cheese factory fire in New Zealand in recent memory. In 2004, a Blenheim facility was completely gutted, leaving 45 staff jobless, wrote the New Zealand Herald. Although it's unknown what caused the fire, its origin in the main cheese hall is definitely suspicious.

Macaroni and Cheese Crisis Averted

On Monday, a St. Petersburg, Fla. man was celebrating his 76th birthday alone with the company of a pan and macaroni and cheese — which then caught fire on the stove after he fell asleep, said the Tampa Bay Times.

A soldier visiting his mother in the apartment next door was alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm, and was able to successfully rescue the elderly man from the blaze. Ignoring one's reheated macaroni and cheese may be a dangerous endeavor, indeed.

Fondue: The Silent Menace

Fondue may be a delicious Swiss treat, but the combination of flames, melted cheese, and a healthy quantity of kirsch (a brandy used to give the mixture flavor) makes it something of a fire hazard.

Fondue is particularly dangerous during the holidays, when it's the basis for many holiday meals. Consider a Christmas Eve fondue-related house fire in Nanaimo, Canada, which began when the fondue flame set off a flash fire, eventually incinerating the family Christmas tree as well as the house. No one died, although a young woman and her mother both suffered burns.

Flaming cheese is considered a delicacy when it comes to Saganaki, a Greek specialty that's created when you set goat's milk cheese on fire with a little assistance from brandy, or other alcohol. Albeit in smaller quantities than in the Norwegian case.

The word news most often conjures up visions of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the troubled global economy, a political crisis in Washington, erupting volcanoes and devastating earthquakes. But as we all know, there is far more to news than that. Indeed, it’s often the wacky, weird, offbeat and sometimes off-color stories that can most intrigue and fascinate us. Those stories can range from changing astrological signs to lost pyramids in Egypt but in their essence they all cast new light on the shared human condition in all of its wild diversity.